After graduating, Gina moved back to San Diego in 2008. Kyle followed a year later and they married.

Although Gina grew up in the local dance community, she said much had changed in the 10 years she was away in college. The recession was hard on local dance companies, many troupes were homeless and new players had emerged.

“It was like I had to get to know the dance scene all over again,” she said. “Everyone was really welcoming, though.”

Gina said they made fast friends in the dance, teaching and yoga communities as they looked for ways to pay their bills.

“Like many artists, Kyle and I have a good dozen part-time jobs that make up our work, so we’ve got our feet in a lot of different communities,” Gina said. “He was in a dance theater MFA program and I was in schools, teaching yoga.”

Carving a niche

Kyle said he and Gina have worked hard to give their company a distinctive stamp.

“There are choreographers interested in creating work that interests other dancers and choreographers. And then there are people interested in developing the audiences outside of dance and bringing in new audiences. We’re firmly in the middle,” he said.

“We want to create stuff that doesn’t pander to either group. We don’t want to leave out dancers but we don’t want to leave out the audience, either. Dance has an incredible power to move anybody. If we can build audiences and help them understand and appreciate the power of dance, they will share it with people they know.”

When they’re not applying for grants and fellowships, the couple are making long-range plans for the company’s permanent future in San Diego.

“It’s really heartbreaking to see artists that develop and receive the riches of San Diego’s teaching but not enough opportunities here to dance, so they end up leaving for L.A., San Francisco or New York,” Kyle said. “We want to do our best to be able to stay here, and develop a strong dance scene that allows for young people coming up to have a place to show their work and, ideally, receive money to be able to support living here.”

A long-term goal for somebodies is a permanent space.

“If we’re really dreaming big, we’d love to have a live/work space which we could convert for teaching classes and informal performances,” Gina said. “We love being here in San Diego. We get a lot out of being a part of the community in professional and social ways, and every time we perform somewhere else in the country we proudly announce that we’re from San Diego.”